Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP: written questions
576 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Barristers: IndiaMinistry of JusticeTabled 5 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75467More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has had discussions with her Indian counterpart on the impact of (a) registration and (b) processing fees on the ability of barristers to participate in arbitration proceedings in India.
Answer: The Ministry of Justice has regularly engaged the Indian Ministry of Law and Justice and Bar Council of India (BCI) at Ministerial and official level in recent years to advocate for the interests of UK barristers and advocates, often in conjunction with t...
Answered 10 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordBarristers: IndiaMinistry of JusticeTabled 5 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75466More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has had discussions with her Indian counterpart on fly-in fly-out provisions for UK barristers in that country.
Answer: The Ministry of Justice has regularly engaged the Indian Ministry of Law and Justice and Bar Council of India (BCI) at Ministerial and official level in recent years to advocate for the interests of UK barristers and advocates, often in conjunction with t...
Answered 10 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordBarristers: IndiaMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75139More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions her Department has had with the (a) government and (b) Bar Council of India on regulatory barriers facing barristers from England and Wales.
Answer: The Ministry of Justice has regularly engaged the Indian Ministry of Law and Justice and Bar Council of India (BCI) at Ministerial and official level in recent years to advocate for the interests of UK barristers and advocates, often in conjunction with t...
Answered 10 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordVisasHome OfficeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75138More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has issued guidance on expediting visa applications for (a) witnesses, (b) litigants and (c) legal representatives required to attend court hearings in the UK.
Answer: UKVI will always seek to ensure those who need to attend court are able to do so in line with the Immigration Rules and wider court instructions.All short term visit visas are governed by our published service standards. These can be found here: Visitors ...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordVisas: CommonwealthHome OfficeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75137More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the time taken to issue visas on the ability of Commonwealth citizens to participate effectively in proceedings before UK courts.
Answer: UKVI will always seek to ensure those who need to attend court are able to do so in line with the Immigration Rules and wider court instructions.All short term visit visas are governed by our published service standards. These can be found here: Visitors ...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordVisasHome OfficeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75136More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prioritise visa applications from overseas parties required to appear before UK courts.
Answer: UKVI will always seek to ensure those who need to attend court are able to do so in line with the Immigration Rules and wider court instructions.All short term visit visas are governed by our published service standards. These can be found here: Visitors ...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordVisas: CommonwealthHome OfficeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75135More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of average waiting times for visa applications from Commonwealth citizens required to attend court proceedings in the UK.
Answer: UKVI will always seek to ensure those who need to attend court are able to do so in line with the Immigration Rules and wider court instructions.All short term visit visas are governed by our published service standards. These can be found here: Visitors ...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordPrivy Council: CommonwealthMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75134More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Privy Council remains adequately resourced to deal with cases from Commonwealth jurisdictions in a timely manner.
Answer: The Commonwealth countries which continue to use the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) as their final court of appeal are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Brunei, Cook Islands and Niue, Grenada, Jamaica, Kiribati, Mauritius, St Kitts and Nev...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordPrivy Council Office Judicial Committee: CommonwealthMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75133More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has had discussions with Commonwealth partners on future arrangements for appellate jurisdiction currently exercised by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Answer: The Commonwealth countries which continue to use the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) as their final court of appeal are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Brunei, Cook Islands and Niue, Grenada, Jamaica, Kiribati, Mauritius, St Kitts and Nev...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordPrivy Council Office Judicial Committee: CommonwealthMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75132More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which Commonwealth countries continue to use the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as their final court of appeal.
Answer: The Commonwealth countries which continue to use the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) as their final court of appeal are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Brunei, Cook Islands and Niue, Grenada, Jamaica, Kiribati, Mauritius, St Kitts and Nev...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordBarristers: Fees and ChargesMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75131More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if her Department will establish an independent body to review and make recommendations on barristers’ fees for publicly funded criminal work.
Answer: This Government recognises that legal aid is a vital part of the justice system. It enables those individuals who need it most to have access to publicly funded legal assistance, in order to uphold their legal rights. This Government has made a significan...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordLegal Aid Scheme: Criminal ProceedingsMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75129More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of criminal legal aid fees in ensuring sufficient numbers of publicly funded barristers are available to meet demand.
Answer: This Government recognises the vital importance of legal aid and the need to ensure an adequate supply of suitably qualified criminal barristers and solicitors. Since 2022, funding for defence advocates has increased by 17%. In December 2024, we also anno...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordCrown Court: TrialsMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75128More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of Trial Blitz style listing schemes in reducing backlogs in other Crown Court centres beyond Greater Manchester.
Answer: Listing is a judicial responsibility. The judiciary deploy measures, including the concentration of judicial and court resources to hear a specific cohort of cases over a defined period, as part of ongoing efforts to maximise throughput. HMCTS officials s...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordRemote HearingsMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75127More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to expand the use of virtual hearings for short matters.
Answer: We recognise the importance of utilising technology to improve the efficiency of criminal and civil court proceedings. That is why, in May 2025, HM Courts & Tribunals Service published its Remote Participation Approach, setting out its principles for ...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordJudges: RetirementMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75126More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will review restrictions on the number of sitting days available to retired judges under the age of 75.
Answer: The number of days that a retired judge can sit is governed by HM Treasury’s abatement policy which ensures that pension benefits and ongoing income do not exceed a judge’s pre-retirement income. Abatement applies to pension benefits from the final salary...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordOffenders: RehabilitationMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75124More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential savings to the public purse of a diversion model that redirects (a) low-level and (b) first-time offenders from Crown Court proceedings.
Answer: This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog. As of December 2024, the Crown Court outstanding caseload was over 74,000. As of March 2025, the caseload continued to increase, with a new series peak of 76,957. It is clear that fundamental r...
Answered 9 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordOffenders: RehabilitationMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75122More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what consideration her Department has given to the potential merits of increasing the use of (a) diversion schemes based on (i) deferred prosecution agreements and (ii) referral orders and (b) other diversion sch
Answer: This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog. As of December 2024, the Crown Court outstanding caseload was over 74,000. As of March 2025, the caseload continued to increase, with a new series peak of 76,957. It is clear that fundamental r...
Answered 9 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordCrown Court: StandardsMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75121More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of resources available to ensure that increases in police officer numbers do not contribute to an increase in the Crown Court backlog.
Answer: We are working closely with the Home Office to monitor and assess the impact of increased police recruitment on the Crown Court, as well as on the prison and probation services.Additionally, the Government commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to undertake an In...
Answered 9 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordCrown Court: StandardsMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75120More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate she has made of the number of outstanding Crown Court cases; and whether this estimate takes into account (a) case complexity and (b) the number of defendants involved.
Answer: The number of open Crown Court cases can be found in Table_C1 of the Criminal Court Statistics quarterly release, with data currently published up to the end of March 2025. Additional breakdowns of the open caseload published here include the offences of ...
Answered 9 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordTrialsMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75119More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that all available courtrooms are utilised to full capacity in order to reduce waiting times for trials.
Answer: This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog. Incoming demand is so high that even sitting at record levels will not on its own reduce the outstanding caseload. For this financial year (2025/26), this Government is funding a record allocat...
Answered 9 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordCrown Court: Opening HoursMinistry of JusticeTabled 4 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 75118More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Crown Court sitting day allocations on the ability to reduce the backlog of criminal cases.
Answer: The Government remains committed to bearing down on the Crown Court backlog and is increasing sitting days to record levels to achieve this aim. The Lord Chancellor regularly considers the impacts of additional sitting days on the outstanding caseloads, i...
Answered 9 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordImmigrationHome OfficeTabled 3 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 74815More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to review cases of people born in the UK before 1 July 2006 to a British father and a non-British mother where the parents were not married, who sought registration under sectio
Answer: All applications made under section 4G of the British Nationality Act 1981 are considered against the statutory criteria. Customers are only required to pay the citizenship ceremony fee; no registration fee is payable. In the White paper – restoring contr...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordAsylum: Overseas StudentsHome OfficeTabled 3 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 74799More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Prime Minister's has considered establishing a framework enabling asylum-seeking students to access (a) internships, (b) placements and (c) other forms of work experience that support thei
Answer: Asylum seekers are eligible to apply for permission to work in the UK if their claim has been outstanding for 12 months or more, through no fault of their own. Those permitted to work are restricted by the Home Office to apply for jobs on the Immigration ...
Answered 12 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordWomen: Health ServicesWomen and EqualitiesTabled 3 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 74798More
Question: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure climate adaptation plans are in place across all sectors to prevent adverse impacts on (a) women’s health and (b) pregnancy outcomes.
Answer: Under the UK Climate Change Act 2008, the Government produces a UK Climate Change Risk Assessment every five years, followed by a National Adaptation Programme, setting out actions by relevant government departments to address the risks identified in the ...
Answered 24 Sept 2025
Original Parliament recordWomen: Health ServicesWomen and EqualitiesTabled 3 Sept 2025AnsweredUIN 74797More
Question: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on increasing the women's healthcare workforce to ensure services can meet rising demand and deliver the NHS 10-Year Plan.
Answer: The Ministers for Women and Equalities work closely with colleagues from DHSC on a number of areas to improve women’s health, as we put women’s equality at the heart of our missions. Through our 10 Year Health Plan, we are delivering our manifesto commitm...
Answered 24 Sept 2025
Original Parliament record
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